Disc drives typically include a base on which various drive components are mounted. A cover combines with the base to form a housing that defines an internal environment of the disc drive. The components include a spindle motor, which rotates one or more media discs at a constant high speed. Information is written to and read from tracks on the media discs through the use of an actuator assembly. The actuator assembly includes actuator arms, which extend towards the discs. Mounted on each of the actuator arms is a read/write head, which includes an air bearing slider enabling the head to fly in close proximity above the corresponding media surface of the associated disc.
Increases in storage media density have allowed disc drive manufactures to produce disc drives with large capacities that are much smaller than disc drives generally found in desktop computers. A typical standard disc drive has a disc with an outer diameter of 3.5 inches (95 mm). Small form factor discs have sizes less than that; e.g., 2.5 inches (65 mm), 1.8 inches (47 mm), 1.3 inches (35 mm), 1.0 inches (25 mm) are currently available, and even smaller discs are currently in development. As the demand for smaller and more powerful electronic devices, including disc drives, increases, housings for the devices must manage space requirements more efficiently. Hard drive enclosures are examples of housings that face these constraints.
For example, as the form factor size is reduced, printed circuit board (PCB) area for a hard drive is also reduced. A PCB on a small disc drive generally requires all of the functions of a PCB on a bigger drive. For example, a PCB may include control functions for the operation of the drive and communication protocol to communicate with a device, e.g., a computer, that uses the hard drive. In very small drives, the area of a PCB dedicated to mounting screws for the PCB becomes significant relative to the overall area of the PCB. The space taken up by a screw head on a PCB cannot be used for electronic components. Furthermore, automation tooling used to mount a PCB using screws can require even more unused space on the PCB near screw mounting holes. This unused space on a PCB can make designing and manufacturing small disc drives difficult.